North Korean soldier captured in Ukraine war has died: South Korea’s spy agency

Intelligence assessment follows Ukrainian president’s claim about ‘killed or wounded’ North Korean troops fighting in Ukraine

A North Korean soldier fighting for Russia has died in Ukrainian captivity from serious wounds, South Korea’s spy agency said.

The announcement from the National Intelligence Service in Seoul was made on Friday, hours after the Yonhap news agency quoted the agency as saying for the first time that Ukrainian forces had captured a North Korean soldier. He was alive, the report said, but it was unclear where he had been seized.

Thousands of troops have also been sent by Pyongyang to bolster Russia’s military, including in the border region of Kursk, where Ukraine had launched a surprise incursion into Russia in August.

KEEP READING:

• Have North Korean fighters died in the Russia-Ukraine war?
• Seoul: More than 1,000 North Korean troops have been killed or wounded in the war in Ukraine
• North Koreans dead in Kursk as they join Russia-Ukraine conflict in earnest

Confirmation of the soldier’s death came days after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine claimed that nearly 3,000 North Korean soldiers had been “killed or wounded” thus far as they engaged in combat alongside Russian troops.

It was the first large estimate by Ukraine of North Korean casualties weeks after Kyiv indicated that North Korea had deployed 10,000 to 12,000 troops to Russia to assist it in the nearly three-year-old war.

Ukraine’s military intelligence, referred to by its acronym GUR, said heavy casualties had been suffered among North Korean units due to Ukrainian strikes near Novoivanovka in Kursk, supply problems and even shortages of drinking water.

Strengthened ties:

North Korea and Russia have deepened their military relationship since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

A landmark defence pact between Pyongyang and Moscow signed in June took effect this month, with Russian President Vladimir Putin calling it a “breakthrough document”.

Ukraine’s allies have warned that the increasing engagement of Pyongyang in Russia’s war in Ukraine is a “dangerous expansion” of the conflict.

Last week South Korean politician Lee Seong-kweun stated that soldiers in Pyongyang were being “utilised as expendable front-line assault units”.